On Its Second Try, NASA Adds Space to Station

NASA inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday.CreditNASA, via Associated Press

By The Associated Press

May 28, 2016

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA successfully inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, producing the world’s first pump-up compartment for astronauts.

The operation took much longer than expected, stretching over three days.

The astronaut Jeffrey Williams spent seven hours on Saturday opening and closing an air valve to expand the compartment. Enough air finally seeped inside so that the puffy white pod could stretch to its full size of 13 feet in length and 10.5 feet in diameter, which is equivalent to a small bedroom. Internal air tanks provided the final pressurization to complete the job.

Mr. Williams and his five crewmates will now have to wait a week before entering the pod. NASA wants to make certain the chamber is airtight before opening the door.

It was NASA’s second attempt to inflate the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, named for the aerospace company that created it as a precursor to potential moon and Mars habitats, and orbiting tourist hotels.

The BEAM barely expanded during Thursday’s inflation attempt. Experts believe the soft-sided compartment was tightly packed for so long before its launch last month that its fabric layers had trouble unfolding.

Pressure inside the chamber was relieved on Friday to ease the friction among the multiple layers. By Saturday, the cubicle had swelled an additional six feet in length, and looked more like a giant beach ball with every pulse of air.

In all, Mr. Williams opened the valve 25 times on Saturday for a total of 2.5 minutes’ worth of air flowing from the space station into the chamber.

Popping noises could be heard as pressure built inside the BEAM. Officials said it was the sound of internal straps releasing as the pod swelled in both length and girth.

NASA insisted on a slow inflation to avoid a sudden pressurization of the BEAM that could stress the connecting parts of the space station.

NASA paid $17.8 million to Bigelow Aerospace for this version of the BEAM, which could lead to a bigger inflatable room being constructed at the space station.

The company’s founder, Robert Bigelow, is developing a pair of private inflatable space stations that could fly in a few years. Mr. Bigelow, a longtime hotel entrepreneur, sees inflatables as the future of spaceflight.

Because expandable spacecraft can be compressed for launch, the saved space allows rockets to carry more cargo. The standard aluminum rooms that currently make up the space station cannot be larger than what fits into a rocket.

The BEAM — which sits empty except for sensors — will remain attached to the orbiting lab for two years as engineers measure temperature, radiation levels and resistance to impact from space debris. Given its experimental status, the compartment will be off limits to astronauts most of the time.

SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation of Hawthorne, Calif., delivered the BEAM early last month, and the compartment was installed on the outside of the 250-mile-high outpost. Launch delays had kept it grounded an extra six months.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: On 2nd Try, NASA Adds New Space to Station. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe